


and we can flee this town like pigeons from the coop

by JamieGaylePiff



Series: Danger Days [1]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), My Chemical Romance, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: California (Comics)
Genre: Gen, It/Its Agent Cherri Cola, Nonbinary Character, Not Canon Compliant, POV Third Person, Post-SING (Music Video), Pre-Canon, Running Away, there is discussion of death due to the POV character being a ghost, today i offer you andie centric fic from the pov of one of my ocs. tomorrow? who knows...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29567604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamieGaylePiff/pseuds/JamieGaylePiff
Summary: The Girl has this habit of running away.
Relationships: Desert Rose (OC) & Agent Cherri Cola, The Girl & Desert Rose (OC)
Series: Danger Days [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189328
Comments: 19
Kudos: 7





	and we can flee this town like pigeons from the coop

It told her. Son of a bitch, it told her the truth, and it only took knowing it was going into the heart of the black-and-white to get up the balls to do it.

Desert Rose didn't know if they were impressed or mad. The Girl was crying her eyes out with fury, though, and sure they'd  _ told _ her that the reason they wanted her to keep them with her was so that the two of them could track down their crew's masks, but really it was because they wanted to make sure someone was taking care of her, so they shoved aside anything they felt about Cherri Cola in favor of  _ actually doing that _ .

Tentatively, they sat down next to her on the bed, and the light flickered out. She screamed, and it shone again until it burst, throwing the room into darkness. Rose redirected some of the energy she was putting out to themself before she could overload a circuit or something, which had the consequence of making them corporeal for once.

Because, oh yeah, they were a fucking  _ ghost _ taking care of a  _ twelve year old _ . If the genre of their life wasn't already post-apocalyptic cyberpunk thriller, it could be a sitcom.

Rose touched a hand to her shoulder, and the Girl's eyes snapped open, fixing them with a glare.

"Did you know?" She asked. She was probably trying to sound intimidating, but her tear-choked child's voice made it impossible. 

Rose searched for the words they needed.  _ How could I?  _ mingled with  _ I thought you knew _ mixed with  _ I assumed your whole thing was because your mom was the Phoenix _ . Eventually, they settled on,

"Most people can't see ghosts or power batteries or get from Z-3 to Zit in a day. I knew something was up, and assumed you were keeping the details close to your chest."

Fresh tears welled in her eyes, and she wiped them away with a scowl, rolling away from them on the bed. She seemed to accept it, though, because she moved on. "I'm going to run away."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. You heard what they all said, they don't know when it'll be back. I'll pack, we'll leave at dawn. No night travelling."

Cherri's place was in Zephyr, which wasn't the most dangerous place to be out after dark, but wasn't the safest, either.

She grumbled, but pulled her blanket up around herself. Rose didn't want to keep her up, so they waited until her breathing evened out to start collecting her things. The dark didn't bother their vision at all, so it was easy for them. In her backpack they put their mask, changes of clothes, her little sewing kit, the medical supplies the Girl compulsively hoarded, her diary, a brush and comb, a silk scarf, and the jar she used to hold the beads she liked to put in her hair. In her messenger bag they put her water bottle (half filled), the knife they'd convinced her to steal from Cherri, and her four whistles. 

Then, still holding the bags and careful not to wake her, Rose opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

As soon as they turned to close the door, they saw Cherri Cola. It was staring right at them.

They closed the door with a soft  _ click _ .

"Um," they said, "I need the bag you keep for when the kid runs away. I need… to go through it." They lifted the messenger bag, as if for proof.

The story behind the go-pack was pretty simple. She had a tendency to run away. First time, she'd done it when Rose was asleep, and hadn't taken a lot of vitals. Cherri had been freaked out enough that it made a pack that it made her promise to take when she ran away.

Rose had liked that instead of stopping the running away, it had done its best to make sure she'd be safe when it happened. Now, they were just glad that they wouldn't have to work to find a second strap.

"You her ghost?" Cherri asked. "The one she talks to all the time?"

They nodded.

"She should…" it trailed off. Clearing its throat, it said, "I'll show you where I keep the carbons when you're done."

They moved past Cherri, and it followed like a shadow, like they must follow the Girl. They found the bag easily enough, for all that it was right by the door, and poured out the contents.

Water in those cheap plastic bottles that confused the hell out of Rose. Food; dried fruit, nuts, and jerky (no PowerPup). Matches. A gun and two rechargeable battery packs, not that the second was necessary. Clothes enough for a few days. Another medkit, less robust than the one in the backpack but just as useful. A knife. A pair of scissors. Sunscreen. Water purification tablets. To round it out, a sleeping bag was clipped to the bottom. There were also some carbons, but not many. Enough for a week, but not enough to get started on your own. Really, that described the whole thing. 

Rose tucked the gun, money, matches, sunscreen, batteries, smaller medkit, and some of the food into the messenger bag. The scissors, second knife, water, purification tablets, and remaining food went into the backpack. After careful consideration, they added some of the clothes, namely the socks and the underwear. Lastly, they moved the sleeping bag from one backpack to the other.

At some point, Cherri had disappeared to fill the kid's canteen. It was back, now, and pushing a plastic pill bottle that Rose recognized as the Girl's hormone blockers into their hands.

"You know how often she should be taking these?" It asked, and they told it. It nodded, and added, "When you get close to running out, go to the railway man. He should be in the Junkyard. Just show him the bottle and he'll get you what she needs. Talk to him when she wants to start estrogen, too. He knows his shit. If you can't remember that, I wrote it down."

Cherri's words were an uncomfortable reminder that it probably wasn't going to make it back.

After Rose tucked the pills into one of the messenger bag's inner pockets, it pushed a bulging sack of carbons into their hands. Instantly, they were worried about having to hide the damn thing, but Cherri showed them a hidden pocket in the backpack where they could hide it. It also tucked its mask in the bag, but they didn't say anything.

Rose made their way back to the Girl's room, where she was still, thankfully, asleep. They dematerialized themself and waited until just before dawn to wake her.

When they left, neither of them—Desert Rose or the Girl—looked back.

**Author's Note:**

> HIII *makes u read my OC fic*
> 
> so just to preface um. basically my version of the girl can see ghosts! also in my canon she stayed with cherri cola for two years post-SING, before it had to as an undercover agent in battery city. i might about that i might not.
> 
> the premise of this fic is that before cherri went to the city, it told the girl about her being a bomb.
> 
> i tried to make all this as obvious as possible in the fic but. might not have worked. 
> 
> my tumblr is jg-piff, come say hi!


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